Before FSU tipped off their season this year, the general consensus from fans seemed to be “NCAA Tournament or bust.”

Fast forward a couple of months, and the Seminoles finished the regular season an underwhelming 18-12 and a No. 4 seed in the NIT. While the tournament won’t get fans too excited, this is still a learning experience for a young Seminoles' team and gives them an opportunity to compete in a single-elimination tournament.

Looking ahead to next year, FSU loses four seniors (assuming Michael Ojo sticks around and is given a red-shirt) and will be even younger than they were this year. After the Seminoles’ victory over Davidson in the first round of the NIT Tuesday night, freshmen Malik Beasley spoke about what this tournament does for FSU not only this year, but moving forward into next year.

“We just have to make sure we stick together as a team, that’s the main thing,” Beasley said. “I think against Virginia Tech we kind of spread apart because we were losing, but we played together as a team tonight and that’s what we have to do for next year or whatever happens in the future.”

His freshmen counterpart Dwayne Bacon also shared his thoughts about the NIT.

“We’re in the tournament, we want to win it,” Bacon said. “We’re not going to just come out here play because it’s another game, if we’re going to be in something we plan to win it.”

While Beasley or Bacon have yet to announce their decisions for what their future holds, whether it be the NBA draft or sticking around for a Sophomore campaign at FSU, it sure seems like they’re using the NIT to help not only themselves, but their team as well.

As for the actual game that was played tonight, FSU played one of their best defensive games they played all season, and it looks like they’re starting to really gel as a unit – which didn’t look like the case some of this year. You didn’t see the miscues like losing men on switches, or passing to a man in the corner who isn’t there anymore because he’s cutting to the basket.

Another huge takeaway from Tuesday’s game was free throws, yes, free throws. FSU shot 88% from the charity stripe on 21-of-23 shooting. This is huge considering the year that they’ve had at the line, especially since if they make more free throws against Virginia Tech, FSU fights another game in the ACC Tournament. Dwayne Bacon managed to get to the line ten times and was able to cash in on nine of them. Often times, teams win or lose from the free throw line, and tonight FSU thrived from it.

At the end of the day, not only does the NIT give a very young team post season experience, but it also gives them a chance to finish their season that didn’t exactly go according to plan on a high note. At the end of the day, FSU is still playing more basketball than they would have been if they didn’t make the NIT or declined the invitation, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

If FSU messes around and wins this thing, it will give Devon Bookert and his senior classmates a pretty nice send off.